On Friday, Osama bin laden remembered himself to the American people. Above all else, the election in two days is about God’s opinion on war and God’s opinion on this war. There are some events of humanity that are not simply political. God, who watches the life of the sparrow, follows the life and death of every person, we of sacred worth. What is God thinking today?

The church was papered with flyers for the reelection of Mr. Bush in English and Spanish Friday. The building had them stuffed here and there by I assume a Christian who thought that they knew what God thought.

And so bin Laden’s reappearance focuses our national mind on the greatest Core Value for Christian Voters – the gospel of peace and how that speaks to our hating and hurting world.

I hope you have heard me say again and again that God’s character consists of justice and peace. John says, In Jesus was life, and that life was the light of the world. Always in Scripture we see Biblical pairs to describe the Lord. But when we are attached in any way, our instinct is to call only for justice. When 911 happened, the world was shocked, not just the United States, and our first national response was to stop the terror and seek out bin Laden. I think it is fair to say all peoples supported this military search. He was a skilled and dangerous man who had every capacity to do it all again. We still need to return to a search for him.

Sometimes, that sole focus on the justice of God is necessary because the evil must be stopped. Even at those moments, the lopsided emphasis without its partner peace makes justice oppressive. We stopped Hitler in World War 2 but we created the bombing of Dresden and killed thousands of innocents in Japan with an atomic bomb.

That is why war usually doesn’t work and the United Methodist Church rejects it as a tool of normal foreign policy and rejects pre emptive war such as we have here.  War only emphasizes justice and creates new crimes to solve old ones. And so now between 30,000 and 100,000 Iraqis are dead. It is a true question to ask if Iraq is better off now than with Saddam. Tortures including murder happened at Abu Ghraib with almost no accountability. We are spending a billion dollars a week of money that your children and mine will pay back and we can’t stop the killing and we are killing too.

This last week, I saw this video for the first time. This woman hit my heart so hard because she reminds me of my grandmother. I was overwhelmed by her pain and shocked when I realized that she was calling on Almighty God to destroy our homes like we destroyed hers.

I thought of Psalm 55 and 69 where the oppressed people scream out to God for justice. I have never heard those Psalms read by people in need but I hear them in her words.

Let me introduce the clip by saying that she is crying and speaking probably in Farsi. You will see the subtitles near the bottom of the screen and her first words are They have no conscience. She is speaking of American warplanes that bombed nearby.

Who is God listening too? There is no more important question as we face Tuesday than that question. Who is God listening to? Is there anyway to be safe without making new crimes? That’s what we will look at in the Scriptures today.

When there is injustice, it must be paid back. Every religion and every culture always believed this. The problem has always been that an eye for an eye has always escalated and history became merely a story of triumphant armies. In all the killing, no one ever found a person that they could kill and bring to justice and the whole world would say, Finally, we have settled the troubles.

The cycle of violence and revenge could only be stopped if there were a perfect sacrifice, a mediator whose death would be seen as sufficient punishment for crime. For Christ Jesus is our peace, who has made us both one, and has broken down the dividing wall of hostility. Ephesians 2.14

Some good people have wondered why Christianity is such a violent bloody religion. The communion is the slain body and blood of Jesus. Christianity is bloody because the violent world is being reclaimed. Christ is the perfect sacrifice.

There is no normal way to destroy the bad guys without destroying ourselves with fresh guilt. We did wrong to this woman. Our vote on Tuesday is not about what we want to do, it is about doing what God demands that we do.

On the night that the Perfect Sacrifice was born, and angel choirs rent the Eastern skies, they sang, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will towards men.

Do you see that peace is not some back burner scripture? The angel choir gets to sing one sentence and peace is on their heart.

 Peace infuses the scriptures. “Thou dost keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee ,because he trusts in thee. Isaiah 26.3 May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace. Numbers 6.26 Jesus tells the disciples  Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. John 14.27

 Let’s apply those verses as God wants them in our lives. God wants each of us to have peace. It is peace in our hearts. If you have sin and failure, Jesus is the perfect mediator. You can get rid of your feelings. This is not psychology or mythology. It only happens when God the Creator sends a child as a human to become the perfect sacrifice. Why does God accept you with all your faults? It is because of Jesus.

 It means that your marriage has a chance for peace. It means that your kids can fail and there still can be peace. This is a great message for parents and kids. Every time you feel that Dad has been drunk too many times or the kid has been drunk too many times, there comes that perfect sacrifice again. Paul starts or ends 8 of his letters with words of peace. Grace to you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Phil 1:3 We skim over these introductory and closing words as though they had no life or power. But don’t close your hearts to the chance for peace where you are, in your workplace, with the person next door.

 It is a great message for the world.  They shall beat their swords into plowshares,   and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation,  neither shall they learn war any more.  Isaiah 2.4

This is not pie in the sky. We can offer great hopes because we know there has been a perfect sacrifice. And that is just the point. There is a role for you and me. As persons, and as the church, and as citizens of the most powerful nation. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of  God.Matthew 5.9 This is not a political issue that we are in. We are commanded by God to use our voice and vote to be peacemakers. The world powers have gathered and we have 130,000 US troops there hoping that either thru their victory or thru their sacrifice – it will be enough. But as valiant and strong as these young kids are, sending even our flower of youth will not be enough. Here is a Christian family that found that out

We need to work with other nations to find an escape plan or we will leave a failed state that cannot keep evil out. But then we need to commit money to education for women in the middle east and money for health, we need to offer the core values we have talked about this past month and there is a role for the  church. We will have to start this giving. In our system, we need to empower the United Methodists thru giving to go there and bring good tidings of peace. [Isa 52:7] How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who announces peace, who brings good news, who announces salvation,

We need to pray for safety of the young Americans and safety for the grandmother that called to God for help. And we need this Core Value in our hearts and on our lips. In Luke, Jesus sends out the 70  with the last urgent message to Israel to hear the news of their salvation. They are to run from house to house and Jesus says to them, Here is the message to give. [Luke 10:5] Whatever house you enter, first say, 'Peace to this house!' May that be the hope that we nourish above all others in our heart. God bless you and may peace be yours. God bless the America on Tuesday. God bless all the nations with peace through the perfect sacrifice.